HPER involved in health care evaluation

Aimed at the Amish, Mennonites and other groups, a federal pilot program to improve healthcare and health education in the Washington County, Ind. area involves a joint effort between Hoosier Uplands and IU's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.\nMichael Reece and Catherine Sherwood-Puzzello, both HPER faculty members, are heading the evaluation of the project scheduled to last three years. The Rural Health Outreach Program is to receive an annual $200,000 and is one of 13 Rural Health Outreach Grant recipients in the nation. \n"This county is unique in that it is a medically under-served community, and the population is considered to be primarily low-income (many below 200 percent of the federal poverty level)," Reece said. "It is a prime example of a rural Indiana area where improvements to the health care infrastructure have the potential to greatly increase the health status of the community."\nThe goals of the project are to provide health services in the Washington County area, including a primary health care clinic in Campbellsburg, allow for sufficient transportation for those in need of health care services and also to enhance health education in the county.\n"Our role will be to document the manner in which multiple community health entities (a hospital, a community-based organization and the county health department) come together to increase access to health care and health information for under-served rural communities," Reece said. \nHe added IU's importance comes with it's expertise in research and evaluation. The project will also provide opportunities for IU students to train and get hands-on experience for dealing with rural health issues.\n"This program has the potential to have multiple positive outcomes," Sherwood-Puzzello said. "We are already seeing community members have increased access to health information, increased access to medical services and the community partners are strengthening the health care infrastructure of Washington County by collaborating on this effort.\n"Our primary purpose is to work closely with Hoosier Uplands, the health department and hospital officials to determine the effectiveness of this program. Officials with these three agencies have all the necessary tools to make this project be a success and serve as a model for future programs. \n"They approached the University for help in developing and administering the necessary evaluation procedures for the program."\nWorking with HPER, Hoosier Uplands is a strategic development and consulting service company that specializes in consulting services, rural health initiatives, emergency preparedness, youth development and prevention initiatives and before- and after-school services.\n"We are very pleased with IU's involvement in this evaluation process," said Steve Adams, director of strategic development and consulting services for Hoosier Uplands, in a recent news release. "The University has the talent and experience that is needed for the evaluation process, and (its) participants are really getting involved by attending the many community meetings that are part of this process."\nReece said there is strong hope that the program will fulfill the needs of the county.\n"We hope that by the end of three years that Washington County will have a stronger health care infrastructure -- one that can support the health care needs of community members without reliance on large amounts of federal funding," he said. "Of course, we hope that more funding is available once our first three years are up, because we would like to take the lessons learned from this project and help other communities apply them to their own health care issues"